Along with Hawken coming to Xbox One, the game will also be released on PS4. The latest trailer (shown below) also clarifies that the game will also remain free-to-play on consoles. Considering that whole monetization setup killed Hawken on PC, I had hoped they would have gone back to the game’s origins and do something more standalone. I still think the fact that Hawken wasn’t released as a straightforward downloadable arcade game on the 360 is one of the biggest missed opportunities of the last console generation.

The game is now being handled by Reloaded Games and 505 Games. Thus far, they seem to be doing a better job than Meteor Entertainment did, as they pretty much killed the community through overt greed and incompetence. I feel sad for the old team at Adhesive Games though, as seeing their work resurrected like this must be difficult.

That said, Hawken is finally getting a wider release. Let’s hope that this time the game survives a bit better and finds the audience on console it so badly needs.

Following the first Titanfall released back in 2014, we now have an all-new and shinier Titanfall 2 on the way later this year. While the first game mostly serviced Xbros, this new game will also be coming out on PS4. The game looks good though and this time around there’s an actual proper singleplayer mode and the new grapple mechanics give me major Lost Planet 2 feels. While the singleplayer mecha setup looks interesting, in terms of narrative, the mecha themselves still look like they handle akin to people in robot suits.

Admittedly, the whole “Titans aren’t mecha” hilarity is probably worth bringing up here but I know that members of Respawn read this humble site and seem to enjoy it, so it’s clear that one guy’s slightly nutty viewpoint on mecha doesn’t represent a whole studio.

If I am brutally honest, while I personally enjoyed the first game, the mecha were dull to play with. This was proven out by the fact that both Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III only copied the powered suit parkour from Titanfall and eschewed the mecha. It’s a shame as the Titans looks amazing but I just wish they had been more vehicular in terms of their control, rather than just feel like a slow and heavy dude.

The singleplayer and multiplayer trailers are shown below and Titanfall 2 comes out this October.

We always loved the Kow Yokoyama infused mecha designs, despite the fact the creative team behind it said that they weren’t mecha at all. Fun times. The game was good too and had a great arcade sensibility to it, it’s just a pity that the approach to monetization was completely awful. These days you can still play the game on PC but it will be interesting to see how Hawken will do once it finally reaches console.

As part of Sentinel’s ongoing Riobot range, we’ll be finally getting a toy of the Metal Gear Sahelanthropus from Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Like prior toys in the range, this will also have a good chunk of diecast included. The extra good news, bar the LEDs and accessories, is that T-REX are also working on the design of this. Released in April next year, the Riobot Metal Gear Sahelanthropus will cost 41,040 yen. Considering it transforms and it is pretty massive with it, that’s a fair price all things considered. The mecha itself is pretty anachronistic within the series’ timeline but it makes for a fun boss fight at least (the latter being shown below, though obvious spoiler warning attached to that). You can pre-order this new toy here.

Following the reveal we now have some initial combat footage for the Platinum Games developed Transformers Devastation. We’re loving the cel shading and the combat looks decent enough too but the whole aerial ramming in vehicle mode looks a bit odd. It will be interesting to see how it will play once it is released in October this year. We’re definitely excited for it though, which is a novel feeling to have for a Transformers games.

So a commercial listing for the upcoming Transformers Devastation was recently leaked. This is a cel-shaded brawler developed by Platinum Games, set for release on pretty much everything (as in PS4, Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360). The game will also feature all the classic 80’s English voice cast too. After the High Moon games we are a bit wary of someone else handling Transformers, that said this is Platinum we are talking about and they do make well crafted games on the whole. The cel-shading also looks good too but until we see it in motion we’ll reserve judgement, as this kind of thing is notoriously difficult to get right. Set for an October release this year our fingers are crossed for this one!

In welcome news, it seems we are to get AirMech Arena released on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One sometime this spring courtesy of Ubisoft. This is an update to the already released game on Xbox 360, with the PC original still going strong. A fair few months back, the developers hooked us up with a VIP account on the PC version and we’ve been playing it solidly since. It’s a modern day take on Herzog Zwei and that’s nothing but a good thing. Even the freemium setup doesn’t really get in the way that much and that’s a rarity. The 360’s controls also worked great on a pad too, which was a surprise, so these new versions should be equally competent in that department too. In any case, it’s nice to see solid indie mecha game that harks back to classic gaming and does it with real flair and skill.

What with Gamescom undwerway, lots of games are being shown and available for punters to play. One of which is Respawn’s Titanfall. Considering the fucking idiotic stance by their lead artist, that the titular Titans “aren’t mecha“, we’re very skeptical about how the (very obviously) mecha section of the game will play out. The new footage (shown below) again emphasises this “seamless transition” between Titan and human control – in short, the mecha basically play like people. Weirdly, the on foot mechanics look far more interesting and we’re very keen to try out all the wall jumping and the displayed Titan follow mode looks suitably neat too. In any case, we’ll be picking this up on release and giving it a good once over.

In a recent interview with Game Informer, Respawn’s Joel Emslie said something disappointing and worrying in equal measure regarding the mecha in Titanfall. The main quote being “Mech is kind of a dirty word with us, we don’t like it. These aren’t mechs” (screenshot above). Despite the very obvious and widely acknowledged aspects that define the game’s Titans as mecha, it seems that this is another attempt by a game studio to re-brand mecha as something else and new (though with Hawken, Adhesive to their credit did change their tune). This is likely intended as a means to distance the game from any form of Japanese inspiration. Doing the typical American thing of making out that this was some kind of immaculate creative conception, which in itself is still worthy of copious eye rolling. Whilst this is a pretty shitty thing to do, what’s more worrying is how the mecha are being described as a “second skin” for the pilots. In that we may likely see the game with more human controlling mecha, which is basically the same route Front Mission Evolved went down. In short, that didn’t work out too well. Anyway we’re now somewhat skeptical about Titanfall, especially as the lead artist is saying stuff like this. Thanks to Bonk for the heads up.

Whilst it was leaked recently that Respawn Entertainment were working on a mecha themed FPS, it has now been officially announced. Called Titanfall, it’s a sci-fi FPS set on what appears to be a far off future colony world. On foot combat seems to have parkour and quick boosting elements (so quite interesting) but the mecha look like something else entirely (as shown above). Whilst we did berate Front Mission Evolve’s idiotic standardisation between human and mecha handling, it’s not entirely clear if that’s the case here. That aside, the mecha designs have some nice nods to Yutaka Izubuchi’s and Kow Yokoyama’s work though, which we entirely approve of. Whilst this was premiered along with the Xbox One, apparently there will be a 360 and PC release too. The announcement trailer is linked below.

Oh, and to our readers from Respawn (of which there are a few), “hi!”.